The influence of step frequency on the range of perceptually natural visual walking speeds during walking-in-place and treadmill locomotion

Walking-In-Place (WIP) techniques make relatively natural walking experiences within immersive virtual environments possible when the physical interaction space is limited in size. In order to facilitate such experiences it is necessary to establish a natural connection between steps in place and virtual walking speeds. This paper details a study investigating the effects of movement type (treadmill walking and WIP) and step frequency (1.4, 1.8 and 2.2 steps per second) on the range of perceptually natural visual walking speeds. The results suggests statistically significant main effects of both movement type and step frequency but no significant interaction between the two variables.